Podcast: Scotland’s fintech eco-system gives it a unique place in the business world
It is one of the country’s fastest growing sectors, with more than 200 companies, and it attracts investment from the UK and overseas.
Mary MacPherson, Director, Digital Transformation, Financial Services at EY, shared her views on the industry for the latest edition of The Scotsman’s ‘Fintech in Focus’ podcast series.
She believes the country’s well-connected fintech ecosystem makes it stand out. “Scotland is a globally recognised fintech hub, with over 200 fintechs, 15 universities and 16 innovation spaces. There are five reasons I’d suggest Scotland is unique,” says MacPherson.
These reasons are: its heritage of innovation; its position as a well-established financial services centre; its academia; its well-connected trade and promotional bodies; and the fintech firms themselves.
But MacPherson explains that more could be done to increase diversity and inclusion in fintech, including gender diversity. Only 17 per cent of fintechs are female-founded or co-founded and less than a third of the fintech workforce are women.
“We, globally, all have work to do to make any role in technology more accessible to girls and women. While I think the perception of engineering and science as ‘male roles’ is depleting, the reality of the work place is that technology and financial services have a culture of male dominance.”
She points out that fintechs are striving to increase accessibility to customers and break down barriers to inclusion. “Typically, fintechs create a laser focus on simplifying and problem solving around an experience or complexity point that scaled players can’t fix quickly on their antiquated, though improving, infrastructures and platforms.”
In conclusion, MacPherson paints a positive picture on the outlook for fintech, despite economic turbulence. “Scotland’s ecosystem makes it an ideal place to weather the storm, to invest and to scale,” she says.